This is a free, printable PDF version of the complete text of the celebrated Gothic narrative poem, 'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe (1845), for English teachers to download.
Students can annotate this version of the poem, or work with it in groups to analyse different stanzas, and explore some of the compelling poetic techniques (such as alliteration) that Poe uses.
Students might also wish to consider the powerful ABCBBB rhyme scheme which adds to the horror as the persona reveals the poem’s ‘story’, and his use of Gothic vocabulary and emotive, sensory diction to create the chilling atmosphere of the poem.
As a lovely first reading activity to consolidate their understanding, you might also want students to create a storyboard for each stanza.
If you are looking for more Gothic lesson activities or a complete scheme of learning, including PowerPoint lessons on this poem, try our KS3 Gothic teaching pack.
Example stanzas from this extraordinary Gothic poem:
Once Upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door -
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “Tapping at my chamber door
Only this and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
“’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-
This it is and nothing more. “